Cole caps stellar year with 3rd pitcher of month honor
For the third time this season, Astros righthander Gerrit Cole was named the American League Pitcher of the Month.
The September honor follows those in June and July for Cole, who was also named AL Player of the Week for the final seven days of the regular season.
Cole becomes the second Astros pitcher to win three monthly awards in the same season, joining Dallas Keuchel, who accomplished the feat in 2015 on the road to the AL Cy Young Award. Cole and teammate Justin Verlander are the clear-cut frontrunners in this year’s Cy Young race.
Cole went 5-0 in September, leading AL starters in victories, strikeouts (74), opponent batting average (.140) and WHIP (0.64). His 1.07 ERA ranked second.
The weekly award was the first of Cole’s career. He went 2-0 last week with a 0.75 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 12 innings, allowing six hits and two walks.
On Sunday, he became the first pitcher in major league history with at least 10 strikeouts in nine consecutive games.
Assistant GMs promoted, added
In a bevy of front-office promotions announced Monday, the Astros added an assistant general manager while locking in another.
Brandon Taubman, the team’s only existing assistant general manager since the departure of Mike Elias, received a contract extension. Farm director Pete Putila was elevated to assistant general manager.
Taubman’s title is now assistant general manager, player evaluation. Putila’s is assistant general manager, player development. Both have been in Houston for almost all of general manager Jeff Luhnow’s tenure.
Other than Luhnow’s clarifying it was a “multiyear” deal, the Astros did not disclose the length of Taubman’s contract extension. Taubman and Putila seemed primed to be the latest Luhnow lieutenants coveted by other teams this offseason.
Houston lost Elias, Sig Mejdal and Mike Fast last winter. Luhnow made very few external hires to replace the departed front office minds, instead opting to divvy the duties internally.
“This (announcement) is a reflection of some people having stepped up and delivered (who are) ready for broader challenges,” Luhnow said Monday.
With his promotion, Taubman will oversee amateur, professional and international player evaluation, along with retaining all other previous responsibilities.
Putila has overseen the Astros’ player development for three seasons. His promotion also puts the team’s sports medicine and performance department under his guidance.
Others promoted Monday included Bill Firkus (from director of sports medicine to senior director of baseball strategy), Armando Velasco (from director of minor league operations to senior director of baseball operations, through which he will head the Astros’ Latin American scouting group) and Charles Cook (from manager of amateur scouting analysis to director of player evaluation).